Philo Apple Farm Cooking School

Philo Apple Farm Cooking School

Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Distance: 498 miles one-way. It was on my weekly trip to the farmers market that I learned about the Philo Apple Farm Cooking School, 120 miles northwest of San Francisco in the bucolic Anderson Valley wine country. Karen Bates, whose parents founded the French Laundry in Napa Valley in the late 1970s, offers, on the family-run farm, weekend cooking classes that focus on organic, seasonal ingredients. It wasn't going to be all hard work though. The weekend promised plenty of relaxing, eating and drinking. -- Phil Zimmerman

Distance: 498 miles one-way. It was on my weekly trip to the farmers market that I learned about the Philo Apple Farm Cooking School, 120 miles northwest of San Francisco in the bucolic Anderson Valley wine country. Karen Bates, whose parents founded the French Laundry in Napa Valley in the late 1970s, offers, on the family-run farm, weekend cooking classes that focus on organic, seasonal ingredients. It wasn't going to be all hard work though. The weekend promised plenty of relaxing, eating and drinking. -- Phil Zimmerman (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Distance: 498 miles one-way. It was on my weekly trip to the farmers market that I learned about the Philo Apple Farm Cooking School, 120 miles northwest of San Francisco in the bucolic Anderson Valley wine country. Karen Bates, whose parents founded the French Laundry in Napa Valley in the late 1970s, offers, on the family-run farm, weekend cooking classes that focus on organic, seasonal ingredients. It wasn't going to be all hard work though. The weekend promised plenty of relaxing, eating and drinking. -- Phil Zimmerman